The Original Initiative: Greyhound
by Lou-deadfroggy
Summary: Bruce sides with SHIELD when it comes to the missing Avengers, and in return they end the game of cat and mouse he had been playing for over a decade. Tony and Clint find something Phil hadn't told them, and kick the wasp nest in the process.
1. 1 Bruce

**The Original Initiative: Project Greyhound**

**Chapter One**

**Bruce** felt like he was intruding on the silence in the plane. Opposite him sat the two agents, more relaxed than he had ever seen them outside the tower. Natasha looked like she was meditating with her eyes open, staring blankly ahead and keeping as still as an ice sculpture. Next to her, Juliette was engrossed in Game of Thrones, frowning every so often at the page. Bruce wasn't quite sure what to make of the way she was half leaning her head on Natasha's shoulder, something he wouldn't have expected the redhead to ever allow.

He knew that his spot on the plane was thanks to Maria, and a gamble that paid off. Fury bent the rules, and Bruce would assume Coulson did as well, especially when it came to his agents, but he had run the risk of Maria being as by the book as her persona appeared.

"Good luck," she has told him quietly in the half a minute between her showing him the hanger and him having to be on the plane. Bruce looked at the two agents again, noting how even though they were still, their muscles weren't relaxed, and Juliette was making a lot slower progress through the book than she ought to. They had left the Hawk behind, but they were still watching him. That, he thought, was why Juliette hadn't let Natasha go in one way or another since they boarded. Black Widow was skittish around him, with good reason.

Bruce turned away awkwardly, reminding himself that although Natasha was right to be scared, he had a perfect lid on things and the plane was fine. It was an eerily quiet plane, SHIELD having the funding and tech to afford better than the uncomfortable army plane he had jumped out of over New York. Bruce shrugged that away, wishing he had had the foresight to bring a book as well.

They touched down in less time than he expected, his ideas of how far away places were had been formed on foot, air travel made the world smaller.

Bright Floridian sunlight hit them as the stepped out, Juliette automatically pulling on sunglasses. Bruce felt the heat immediately and began to roll up his shirt sleeves. He followed the girls as they walked off towards the exit to the airfield, Juliette carrying a tiny rucksack that made her look like a tourist, and Natasha sporting a camera. The moment they were out on one of Orlando's streets, the pair was indistinguishable. Bruce stuck his hands in his pockets casually and trailed along behind them. It amazed him how easily they slipped into their acts, not saying a word but pulling up a whole story for anyone people watching. Natasha led the way, although they did double back once, whether out of need or just habit. Bruce found himself sweating slightly, despite the sun being nothing compared to Calcutta. He would need all of Maria's luck to get the time he needed to get Greyhound out. Natasha had asked him nicely, but without giving him a real option of refusing. He just needed to give Davies a few more alternatives than he had been given.

"We're two streets away," Juliette told him as they stopped on a street corner. Somehow Maria had planted the idea in Coulson's mind to give Bruce the lead and letting him speak to Greyhound first. "You two go ahead." Juliette was their backup, Bruce eyed her backpack suspiciously. He doubted that it would have gotten through airport security if they had come in conventionally. There were rules about firearms on planes now.

Natasha kept a good two feet away from him as they walked up to the low white panelled house, identical to the ones either side of it in the newly built but already run down street. Davies didn't have a thing for gardening, apparently, although he kept his lawn neater than his neighbours did. She knocked once, and Bruce saw her force her shoulders back into a more relaxed pose. He had lost sight of Juliette, with no idea of where she had gone.

Project Greyhound had been more successful than Project Ion; the undisclosed side effects hadn't turned Davies into a monster worthy of being hunted. Bruce still hadn't gotten over spending every day around the man he had tried to emulate. Steve didn't mean to rub it in, being perfectly free from rage monsters and radioactive blood thanks to Erskine. Genetics had been the wrong way to go as well, Greyhound wasn't the super soldier Steve was. Still, he wasn't Bruce either.

It was only with Maria's help that Bruce had realised that he was currently standing next to the only person who was the successful result of an attempt to copy Steve. Natasha had reflexes beyond those of a normal human, a longer life span and enhanced immune system, thanks to Red Room. There was the wall Bruce always ran into whenever human enhancement came up. It was a name, nothing more, and rarely used. Red Room: the easiest way to silence anyone at SHIELD. So now Bruce was among the people he had failed to recreate. Captain America and Black Widow, the two successes who could walk away happy when he, and he assumed Greyhound, were suffering from the consequences of trying to be perfect.

On that gloomy note, he watched the door open.

"Mr Davies? My name's Natasha Romanoff, we have something urgent to speak to you about regarding your sister. May we come in?"


	2. 2 Natasha

**Chapter Two**

**Natasha** stepped in as Davies opened the door. He matched her in height, not quite reaching Banner's.

"My sister?" He didn't recognise her, obviously since she had simply walked past and checked his name and address before. Banner had the good sense to shut the door behind him.

"No, I'm sure she's fine. It's you we want to talk to, Mr Davies, concerning Greyhound." Natasha had managed to get past him and into his living room, liking the larger space more, even if it was badly decorated and had odd looking dents in the furniture at around about knee height. Davies paled, looking from her to Bruce as he fidgeted nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he murmured. Natasha had to hide back a scoff; people could be so stupidly bad at lying sometimes.

"Mr Davies," Banner said quietly. "Would you believe us, if we said that we mean you no harm?" Phil had told her to let Banner deal with it, that he could talk to Davies on the same level; they had gone through the same things and all that. Still, she shifted her weight slightly so that she could feel the reassuring presence of her gun strapped under her arm.

"No. Get out, both of you." Davies would run, as Banner would have, the moment they left. "I have no idea who you are or what you want, but I'm warning you, get out."

"My name is Bruce Banner, and the lady is Natasha Romanoff." His name had had the desired effect on Davies, who half scrambled to the other side of the room, his eyes popping out of his head.

"Banner? You... You're Ion? You're Ross's project. The Hulk, that is. No, you're lying. Yates sent you, to come after me." Natasha now admired Banner's calm a bit more, he might have had the same thoughts running through his head but in Calcutta he had been more with it than Davies was.

"I would rather not prove my point," said Banner quietly, almost smiling. "We're here on behalf of SHIELD." Natasha caught the faint nod she was given, and slipped out so that they could talk. Davies wasn't her mark, he was Banner's.

"How's it going?" Juliette asked, sitting behind the bins with her rucksack on her lap.

"He's skittish, but he knew about Ross and Hulk. If he can trust Banner, then we have him.

"And Banner too," she muttered, batting a fly away. "Did I mention that I hate anything south of the Arctic Circle?"

"Once or twice. You don't think that it will isolate him from the others, do you? If Banner is with us, and he brings Davies in, Stark isn't going to like it." Natasha had watched Phil draw the different lines between the team, counting all the different ways it could split and fall apart.

"I'm not overly worried about Stark, it's the Captain who's going to be the most difficult one. We can almost bank on Stark taking the opposite line just to annoy him. Don't worry, Tasha, we get Davies, we keep Banner and that's all we need." Natasha shrugged, she didn't understand the way people stuck together when none of them particularly liked each other, and certainly didn't trust each other.

The two of them stayed out there for another twenty minutes, Juliette hidden and muttering the odd complaint about the heat. Finally the back door opened again, Davies coming out onto the tiny porch.

"I heard about the Avengers from the news," he said slowly, not looking at Natasha but rather out at his empty garden. "I ran when they closed Greyhound down, I didn't have some enemy like Bruce there did to fight. I don't know how you found me, but I don't need your SHIELD protection." Banner had failed, Natasha realised: Davies wouldn't come in. They had offered him SHIELD protection, and any help he might need, but General Yates, in charge of the Greyhound project as Ross had been in charge of Ion wasn't chasing his creation.

"I'll come with you," Davies said suddenly, turning to Natasha so that she had to school her expression of surprise back into neutral. "Bruce said that you can help me, you have people who can work to stabilise the Greyhound effects." Natasha had no idea what these effects were, except that Banner was taking liberties in promising that.

"We want you for your abilities," she answered. "SHIELD won't work towards a cure." Banner was probably still looking, but they were counting on Stark to hinder that.

"I don't want a cure," said Davies quickly. "I want to get rid of the side effects. I'll come in, as long as you keep your word." Natasha was irritated that Banner hadn't shared what he planned to offer to Davies beforehand. She had no choice now but to agree. "Well, I'll see about shutting up here." Davies went inside again, and Natasha turned to find Juliette standing at her elbow.

"That was too easy," she muttered to the British agent as Banner joined them.

"He asked for a moment." The two agents were back inside and Juliette at the front door in seconds. Davies was gone. Juliette sprinted out of the door to give chase, leaving Natasha to deal with Banner. "He said he wanted a moment to think, it seemed reasonable."

"He was lying, Doctor," she told him. Banner looked contrite now, realising his mistake as he stared at the ground. "Juliette will find him, we asked nicely, now maybe another route will work." That made him look even worse, Natasha knew he had come to avoid them forcing Davies to come in.

"That..." Juliette panted as she pulled herself up on the door frame a few minutes later. "Is not possible. You said genetic enhancements; I wasn't prepared for bloody Sonic the hedgehog."

"You lost him?" Natasha glared at her partner.

"Greyhounds, Tasha, they run fast." She pulled up her hand, dripping red all over the floor. "They also bite, and that hurts. He didn't turn into anything, he just turned around and suddenly he can bite and scratch like a rabid mutt, then run off faster than Usain Bolt. He's not friendly, and ran before I could knock him out." Natasha beat Banner to her, cradling Juliette's hand gently as she took in the tooth and claw marks. They didn't come from human teeth or nails, the canine dents were too big, and the slashes too deep.

"Let me see," Banner murmured and Natasha reluctantly gave the doctor space.

"He won't come back here," Natasha mused out loud. "We'll track him down again; he's not that good at hiding."

"When you can run like that, you don't need to be." Juliette was trying to shrug Banner off, to no avail. "At least we can tell Phil about exactly what they managed to do with him."

"Let's head back; there'll be a team in here to sort through his things for any leads, and a watch set up here." As she spoke, Natasha felt her cell vibrate in her pocket.

"Tasha." Phil spoke quietly, almost whispering down the line. "Do you have Greyhound?"

"No, he ran. He outran Juliette." The dark haired agent gave her a glare for spilling that.

"Never mind. You three have to go to ground. Stay in Orlando, away from SHIELD. Ross is here, he's coming after Banner. You two keep him safe, and keep Ross' men away from civilians." Natasha stared at Banner, then at the door. They couldn't stay in Davies' house, that was too obvious.

"Find something to patch her hand up with, we're leaving," she told Banner curtly.

"I'll call you when it's safe to pick you up." Phil hung up, leaving a silence in Natasha's ear.

"What's going on?" asked Banner, wrapping the bandage Juliette pulled out of her rucksack around her hand, with liberal splashes of antiseptic.

"We're going to ground. There's someone after you, Doctor." He paled, Juliette's hand forgotten.

"Ross."


	3. 3 Clint

**Chapter Three**

**Clint** had list of places he would have rather been at that moment, instead of sitting across the table from Tony and Steve. The list included about ninety nine per cent of the globe, preferably anywhere that didn't have pissed off superheroes around.

"When did you find out?" Steve asked quietly, pushing his pasta around his plate. Clint had lost track of which meal that was for the Captain, apparently the serum made him permanently hungry.

"About a week before you did." Now that they had cooled down, Steve was a bit more understanding towards him and Tasha. Juliette was still in the black book because she had known, and it was easy to hate someone who wasn't part of the team.

"So you could have told us," Stark muttered. In the place of Steve's food he had a glass of whiskey. Clint half felt like he was being interrogated by them again.

"We've covered that, Tony," Steve said firmly. "They were under orders." It wasn't them Steve was angry at, it was Fury. He understood orders, Clint realised, so he was saving his energy on hating the man at the top.

"Well I reckon there's more they're not telling us," announced Tony as he stood up. "Are you going to help your teammates with this, Feathers, or be the good little agent?" Clint glared at him but jumped up anyway.

"Just get your head around this, Stark," he half spat. "They lied to me too and I was closer to Phil than you were. I had to spend months thinking I'd killed him, so leave off on the comments, okay?" They stared at him, Steve opening his mouth to make some sort of calming comment. "I'll help you hack them." That was what Tony was asking, to find out about the things Phil and Fury had been vague on. His little outburst had mellowed Stark's expression and hopefully his temper.

"Hack SHIELD? Didn't you already do that?" Steve asked, giving them a completely lost look.

"Try, sneaking into a library, you go for the section you want rather than all of it. Tony hacked the stuff on the tesseract and the weapons, not the bits we need now," Clint explained. Stark had gone up to the huge console in the living room that doubled up as his office when the screens were turned on.

"So, Avengers Initiative," murmured Tony out loud. "Let's go for Greyhound first, that's where Bruce and the girls have gone." They hadn't told Stark that, but Clint conceded that it wasn't hard to guess. "Great." They had been at it half a minute and already the word firewall came up. "What's the password, Feathers?"

"How should I know?" Clint asked, holding his hands up. "Can't you hack it?"

"Whoever did this, in the last two weeks by the way used the equivalent of a stone age axe. It's stupidly simple. One word, personally chosen by whoever set it. It's a number. So, who set it and what's the pass code?" Tony was more talking to himself than to them, walking around as the simple tech beat him.

"Phil," Clint said quietly. "He would have set them, it was so high it would be something simple but secure something only he and those who need to know would work out."

"So we're looking for any link between Coulson, Fury, Hill and Natasha?" Steve looked distinctly unimpressed.

"We'll be locked out after three tries, so we're waiting, Hawkeye." Tony turned around to look at Clint, arms crossed impatiently.

"1-5-9-7," he answered.

"Sure?"

"Yup." Seconds later the firewall vanished and was met with one line. Nice try, but the fish aren't biting. "Damnit. Juliette then, she must have set it."

"Two tries left."

"1-8, no, that's too obvious." Clint scowled, somehow Juliette had predicted he would try and crack it, probably not with Stark but she had expected him to. Or rather, she had told Phil to expect him to.

"3-4-7-4," Steve said suddenly. "Fish. The fish aren't biting." Clint nodded enthusiastically, that hadn't been for him, it had been for anyone close enough to them to guess at the number. They were rewarded by a screen awaiting a level eight security code.

"How many levels are there?" Tony asked as he tapped away frantically.

"No idea, but that's above me so you can't use mine." Tony huffed but carried on typing.

"You guys should have stuck with the Stone Age, it'll take another hour or so but then we're in. Unless you have a separate wall for each file. Damnit, I bet you do. We'll be here all week at this rate."

It was another two hours before Tony called them back; Clint had momentarily wrestled with his conscience about hacking his own organisation then told himself that Steve had cracked the code and Tony was doing the actual hacking, so he was clean.

"There's nothing on Greyhound, except that Natasha went to check up on him and what we got to see in the files. There's some stuff on Bruce in here, what's project Ion?" Tony asked before Clint had even sat down.

"It was the official name for what Ross was doing. I don't know what Bruce thought it was called, since Ross lied to him and his team. It was sanctioned under Ion, and technically we should call Hulk Ion, but Hulk seems better." Clint perched next to Steve on the sofa, watching the screen intently.

"Odd, there's a heading here: Operation Hornet. Then no files. Damn." Tony gave the computer the finger as another firewall came up. "They really don't want people in here. I'd say we've got half an hour until-nope, Fury's onto us."

"What do you think you're doing, Stark?" Phil's voice came through on the line, not even needing them to pick it up. "We gave you the files you needed."

"Yeah, well we thought we'd find out what you were keeping from us Agent Lazarus. What's Hornet?"

"That's none of your business, Stark. Greyhound was part of the initiative, you don't need to come snooping around." Clint almost grinned at the familiar voice. He had missed it; desperately in the time he had thought Phil to be dead.

"You know I'll find out anyway so why not just tell me?"

"That's classified, Stark. It's also none of your concern." They were very firmly shut out of the system. "Don't try that again."

"Death didn't improve your sense of humour," Tony complained. Phil had already hung up, leaving them once again staring at the SHIELD firewall.

"Before you ask, I've never heard of it. Greyhound and Ion, yes. Hornet's new to me," Clint said quickly.

"Fine. We'll just have to find out then." Tony fixed the keyboard with a determined glare and promptly ignored them.

"Coffee?" Steve asked Clint, leaving Tony to it.


	4. 4 Natasha

**Chapter Four**

**Natasha** was nervous, and she had found three main suitable reasons to give for that so far. Firstly, they had been thrown into a mission with nothing more than a thirty second phone call as warning and no back up, which in itself wasn't too unusual. The second reason was sitting next to her, folding and unfolding his hands repeatedly. Banner was scared, that much was obvious, and he had every right to be. Ross was coming for him, and they all knew how well that had worked out last time. Third reason: Juliette was still inside the building behind them lying through her teeth to try and get them some sort of protection. It had been Natasha's idea to go and give a fake name to the British Consulate, which had arms and soldiers on hand more readily than the hand gun strapped under Natasha's arm and its big brother currently in the backpack at her feet. They had run the hoax before, using Phil's Spanish to convince the authorities to hide them, and it would give them more warning than going to ground in Orlando. For Bruce, it was less like the running he was used to, so that was their best bet to calm him down.

Sitting next to a twitch Bruce Banner was not Natasha's idea of fun.

"Fury won't hand you over," Natasha said quietly after Bruce's third attempt to open his mouth and ask her something. "We kept him out of New York after Hulk appeared as an Avenger, and off your trail in India." She was trying to be reassuring, but all she got from him was an abrupt nod.

"Thank you," Bruce murmured finally. He had gone pale, moving his hands around, almost wringing them as they tried to look casual. The small park opposite the glass building that housed the tiny consulate was practically empty, Natasha had hoped for a crowd for them to hide in. At least they wouldn't have to worry about Bruce's claustrophobia, even if they were seen.

"Got it?" she asked Juliette as the smaller agent approached.

"Did you know that you saved me a lot of trouble when you applied for Indian citizenship?" Juliette was smiling, holding out some papers. "Here, if Ross is going to get you cleanly he'll have to go through London, and possibly New Delhi too." Bruce gave her a weak, still panicked smile. "Unfortunately, they don't have a safe house, although they are now missing a few security passes. I'll go back later and mess Interpol up a bit. That'll throw them off." Natasha turned the passes over before handing them back, wiping them off first.

"What now?" asked Bruce, pocketing the passport. Why he had thought to bring it with him, Natasha could only guess. Of all the things she expected Bruce to carry at all times, an Indian ID card wasn't one of them.

"Now we hide, or more exactly, you hide and we plant some false leads for Ross," Natasha answered, standing up. "Starting with Interpol." Bruce was staring at her in surprise, looking completely lost. "You don't have to go running through the jungle anymore, you can sit in a motel room until we get the call and all the while we're sending Ross on a wild goose chase across the country."

"What's bugging me is why we can't go in," Juliette murmured. She had her back to them, looking at the CCTV cameras on the buildings around them to work out the blind spots so that they could walk off without being too noticeable. "Ross must be trying to pull rank on Fury, when he shouldn't be aware he exists. There's something else going on up on high."

"There always is. Are you going to hack Interpol before or after we get a room?"

"I'll come back later; I'll need the footage anyway. Come on, doc, this is how spies hide." Bruce managed a weak laugh as he followed them through the blind spots.

"It's a lot less muddy than I remember," he said quietly. "It probably works better as well." There was a note of panic in his voice, as if he was praying that their version of hiding worked.

"You slipped off the radar once or twice, you got better as the years went by," Natasha told him, trying to give him a bit of confidence. "We had to spend three days in Mumbai before we tracked you down to Calcutta. This time we aren't trying to hide form everyone, we need SHIELD to know that we're safe. It's just Ross we want to keep in the dark."

"Here." Juliette had stopped after walking for half an hour away from the consulate. She nodded towards a rundown motel with a 'vacancies' sign in the window. "You two go check in, I'll meet you in the room." She vanished down the street to circle around and get the video footage she could alter to fool Interpol into thinking they were in a different hotel.

Natasha hesitated before taking Bruce's arm and walking into the motel. His hand was cold under hers, but he was with it enough not to pull away.

"How many nights?" the bored looking pimpled boy at the desk asked them, glancing away from Angry Birds for half a second.

"One," Natasha answered. The rule was to keep moving, to keep the enemy one step behind. She handed over their passports, Bruce's real one and her fake from Juliette's rucksack. They should have brought a hacker instead of an assassin, Natasha thought as they were given a key.

"No smoking, no fires, leave by eleven." They made their way down the grey walled corridor, Natasha noting the stationary camera at the front desk. Juliette was sitting on the double bed, waiting for them. As soon as the door was shut both Bruce and Natasha moved away from each other politely.

"Text book. Give the consulate staff another few hours to clear the office and I'll head on back." Juliette leaned over to poke the kettle half-heartedly.

"Why do you have to go back?" Bruce asked, doing a remarkably professional sweep of the small room, checking the windows and fire escape plan.

"Because I didn't bring my laptop and they have internet." Juliette shrugged. "I could do it at a library, but they have little coasters with Union Jacks on in their office. It's always a bit more fun when you get to hack your own country." Natasha rolled her eyes before doing a sweep herself. She chose to ignore the wet patch on the wall by the wardrobe.

"Bring back food when you go," she ordered. "And let Bruce see the bite again, now that we've got more time we can make sure you won't get rabies."

Juliette left them again once the sun had gone down. Instead of relaxing, Bruce took up a spot on the only chair, facing the door as if he was waiting for someone to burst in.

"Bruce," Natasha called softly, even though she was in the same position near the window. "We'll keep you safe, I promise. Ross doesn't have any power over SHIELD."

"How many times have you been hunted?" Bruce asked her, his eyes never leaving the door.

"More than I care to remember."

"But you always had SHIELD to fall back to."

"No. Red Room folded and I was on my own, with people more dangerous than Ross after me." Each ounce of information about her past had to be wrenched out of her, each detail a painful splinter. Bruce needed to hear it though, if he was going to calm down enough for her to stop worrying about the other guy showing up.

"Once or twice they caught me." That kept him quiet for a long while, so Natasha ignored the window and crossed over to him. "We won't let him get to you, Bruce." He just looked at her, as if he couldn't bring himself to believe her.

"Thank you," he said finally. Fury might not be the most trustworthy man in the world, and he probably had a private agenda concerning Bruce, but it was more than likely going to be better than what Ross wanted him for. Natasha saw his frame loosen ever so slightly. It was enough, he had a hand on his other half now and it would stay that way unless something went wrong. At which point they would need Hulk anyway.


	5. 5 Clint

**Chapter Five**

**Clint** frowned looking up at Tony in disbelief.

"Someone else?" he asked. "Another project? This is what Hornet is?" Tony nodded, showing Steve the screen.

"So, are they going to be forced on us along with this Greyhound?" the Captain called, sounding almost tired. Clint could see the strain on his face; as if he had just had something dropped on him.

"Not that I know of. What's wrong, Steve?" He shook his head, sitting down quickly. Tony hesitated, looking at Clint for help. Things were still slightly tense between the pair of them, and Tony wasn't the best at giving emotional support. Clint took the seat next to Steve, uncomfortable as he saw something less than confident on the Captain's face.

"Doesn't matter." The mask was pulled up again, making Steve look like Natasha for a moment as he made his face go back to the calm leader persona. "What have you got on this Hornet then?" Clint wasn't buying it, not for one moment.

"Nothing really. The file's almost empty. Here." Tony magnified the text. "Project Hornet. Location: Nevada, status: decommissioned. And then, wait." Tony scrolled down to the only paragraph of text in the file, before the whole page shut them out again. "Damn. Show's over, come back once I've finished wrestling with this thing again."

"Steve," Clint called quietly, the super soldier was already out of the door before he could fall in step with him. "What's wrong, Captain?" There was a silence as Clint had to lengthen his stride to keep up with the taller man.

"The others aren't coming back from Orlando as planned," he answered. "General Ross showed up at the SHIELD base, demanding that we hand Doctor Banner over. They've gone to ground in Florida, whilst Coulson and Fury argue the legalities." Clint stared at the floor, momentarily aghast before his mask slipped on. He didn't waste more than half a second worrying about Natasha and Juliette; they knew what they were doing. It was Bruce he was preoccupied with. The man would be ready to run, just when he didn't have to.

"Is there anything we can do?" Clint knew the answer before he even asked. Fury and Phil would be handling it, Natasha and Juliette had Bruce safely tucked away. Steve shook his head, stopping in the gym doorway with a sigh.

"Apparently there's a problem. Technically Ross is responsible for the control and whereabouts of the Hulk. Fury doesn't have the right to call Hulk in, not that that's possible. I don't understand, only that they're talking about Bruce as if he is a sack of potatoes and it's wrong." Clint understood that, and more than Steve did. The Hulk, and Bruce, had been Ross' problem until the Avengers happened. Now that they had disclosed Bruce's location, it wasn't surprising that Ross had resurfaced.

"Get used to it," Clint suggested. "They talk like that about everyone, as assets not people. Can't you pull your weight; you're the team leader after all?" Steve had the right to overrule surely, when it came to who was on his team or not.

"I don't know, I tried to ask but straight answers don't come. If there's something I can do to bring Banner back I will." Steve paused, taking a punching bag off the rack and hooking it up. "I doubt I'll have any official power. Fury wants us to take on these other Avengers, so why give me the authority to refuse?" Clint had to admit that the captain was right. Fury had a tenuous grasp of the Avengers at best, only Natasha and Clint himself would take a direct order. Fury manipulated the others, but he couldn't control them. Giving Steve official authority over who was and was not an Avenger would shatter even the semblance of control the director had.

"I know SHIELD hasn't given you much reason to trust them, but they trust you. They'll give you the team, and all the power you need to keep it together." Phil would at least, Clint was sure of that. They had Phil. He left Steve to his punching bag, the last retreat for the Captain who was effectively powerless to help Bruce, and went to his room. There, Clint pulled up a screen and called Phil.

"Clint," Phil was in his room, frowning at something on his desk as he gave the odd peek up to his laptop screen.

"Do you have a moment?" Clint asked, savouring the ability to just ask that again. To hear the half frustrated, half resigned sigh as Phil nodded. "What's going on with Banner? Steve-" Phil raised his eyebrows as Clint called his hero by his first name. "Is worried he won't have the power to stop Ross taking Bruce. Is there anything we can do?" Phil shook his head, and Clint was pained to see that it was greyer than he remembered before the, incident. Phil hadn't regained much of his weight, nor his colour even after months in recovery.

"We're fighting a legal battle here as well as trying to stop Ross' men in Florida. As Fury said four years ago, Hulk is Ross' problem. Turns out that we regret that remark now."

"Can't Steve step in? Bruce is an Avenger, that's got to mean something? Ross can't take him away for god knows what." Phil gave him that tired, almost patronising smile that was always followed by an explanation.

"Fury won't give Captain Rogers Champion status. With that he could form a team for any reason, and anyone in it would take orders from him only for the duration. That would take Ross' legal ammunition away, but Fury won't do it."

"What the hell not? He's Captain America; he won't mess around or be a threat!"

"I know that, Clint. The council don't want to lose control of the Avengers." Phil looked tired, rubbing his forehead as if it was a mission gone wrong. Once only the worst case scenarios would have made him look like that. A knife in the heart certainly changed things.

"A special director can give Champion status," Clint said slowly. "That means you or Hill could, without Fury or the council knowing."

"No, Clint, it would be revoked and we have to toe the line. The whole missile fiasco has wrenched a gap between Fury and the council and we're on thin ice here. Maria and I won't take that risk. Captain Rogers will have his teammates back, and we'll side-line Ross for good. Just let me work out how without killing our own military." Clint nodded, moving to switch the screen off. "Clint?" He looked up, smiling at the tone.

"I'm fine," he answered before Phil even needed to ask. "And I've got something to show you. Steve signed your cards, the ones Fury didn't wreck." Phil's face split into a brief grin, before the tired Agent Coulson came back into play.

"I'll talk to you once we've got this sorted." Clint signed off, wishing he had something good to go back and tell Steve. He thought it would be best if the Captain was left to take it out on the punching bags for a while.


	6. 6 Phil

**Chapter Six**

**Phil** looked across the meeting room at the imposing blond man standing opposite Fury. General Ross cut an impressive figure, even in SHIELD. He was also outnumbered, and Phil didn't think that highly of Ross' self-restraint as to not count that as an advantage. Hill entered his line of sight and they took up their places either side of Fury.

"I'm afraid I just can't do that, General," Fury said, his voice deceptively calm. "The ability to create the Hulk, the research and equipment are legal property of the US government, Doctor Banner is not." Ross was glowering at them, the angry soldier trying to stare them down. Phil knew how to keep his expression blank.

"The council-" Ross began, his moustache twitchy angrily.

"The council has changed its mind. The Hulk is now under SHIELD control, as much as that is possible. You and your division have been taken off the case, sir." Fury was nothing if not polite, which only angered Ross more. Phil had been pleased with the council's change of heart, putting Banner's fate directly in SHIELD hands. It wasn't the freedom Bruce wanted, but it was a lesser evil. At least Fury didn't want to kill Banner, or lock him up.

"You don't have the right." Phil wondered who would strike back first if Ross lashed out, Maria was closest but it would be aimed at Fury. He wasn't on form enough yet to be much use, physiotherapy was slow and his physical abilities weren't quick to come back to him.

"I do now. I suggest you leave, General. Doctor Banner is no longer your concern."

"He is a threat," Ross growled. "Not a hero. Maybe you can control whoever you have playing Captain America, and Stark's cooperating but you cannot count on Banner. He is a threat to national security." Phil swallowed the sharp reply that came up at Ross' comment about Captain Rogers. They couldn't risk telling the world that their hero was back from the dead, no one would believe them and Captain Rogers would be denounced as a fraud.

"That may be, but he is no longer your problem. Agent Hill, please show General Ross out." Phil wondered if it was the Captain America jibe or because he wasn't up to his usual standard that made Fury send Hill instead.

"I can't give Captain Rogers Champion status," the director said quietly once the door has closed. "We can't risk him bringing Hornet into the team if Stark finds her."

"We've wiped the files, sir, there's nothing for him to find." Tony was too good at hacking for his own good; even SHIELD couldn't keep him out. They were trying, but Stark tech was too powerful.

"As soon as Romanoff and Mede return, you're to send them in to terminate her. She's too much of a threat now that the Avengers know about her."

"Yes sir." They had delayed terminating Hornet, thinking that she could be useful. Phil began to formulate ideas on how to go about terminating her without putting his agents at risk. Hornet was dangerous after all.

"Is there any news on Hemlock?"

"None, but we're looking, sir." Fury nodded, effectively dismissing Phil. He retreated to the corridor, meeting Hill halfway to his command room.

"Ross has left," she told him, walking along to the empty monitor room he had to work from. "Any news from Orlando?" Phil shook his head, Juliette and Tasha had taken his order to go to ground very seriously. There wasn't a single sign of life from either of them, despite it being protocol. They had people following the men Ross had sent, who were also stumped as to where the girls had hidden Banner.

"They're being thorough," he said, letting a little bit of pride slip into his voice. "I don't want to call them again in case Ross is as good as we are."

"There's a report due in any minute on those following Ross' team. Would it not be safer for Doctor Banner to be back in New York?" Phil had thought about that, but Stark was being watched, Ross knew how close he was to SHIELD and that was where Banner was expected to go.

"Maybe once he's inside the tower, but getting him there would be too much of a risk. He's safe with Tasha and Juliette." Phil gave Maria a long look, trying to read his fellow agent. She was too good for that, a completely blank wall. "There's more room for them to manoeuvre in Florida, more open space to play with than in the city." Maria nodded, and Phil thought he saw something he couldn't name slip onto her face before she covered it up.

"We have people looking for Greyhound as well," she changed the subject. "So far we have been unable to locate him."

"He's not as good as Banner, he'll make a mistake and we'll find him. At least we don't have Yates to worry about." General Yates, Ross' counterpart on the Greyhound project knew when to back off, almost letting his subject run free. At the time he had been reprimanded and Ross honoured, now he was one of Phil's favourite soldiers.

"Agent Hill," an overly loud voice called on her earpiece. Phil stepped away to give her some privacy.

"Go ahead Hughes. Understood." Maria looked at him, frowning. "Ross has given the order to bring Banner down. He's going to Orlando himself." Hughes, one of their special officers had been placed in Ross' division a few months before as Fury's eyes and ears.

"There's a jet getting ready to take you both to Orlando," Fury's voice told them from the console's speakers. "Division delta two, Hill you have command of them. Coulson, find Romanoff and Mede before Ross does." They didn't hesitate; the pair of them were out of the room and heading down the corridor towards the hanger in seconds.

"It's clear," Maria said, and Phil hurried across to the jet's compartment. No low level agents would be around, not until they gave the all clear at least. His presence was still a well-kept secret. "We're ready." Phil shut the door to the cabin, listening to the agents fill up the main part of the jet.

"He really has gone too far, if legalities won't stop him," Phil muttered. Fury had tried to make Ross leave Banner alone through words and orders, but apparently the General wasn't listening.

"He went too far a long time ago," answered Maria.

"Maria-" She shot him a look so deadly Phil didn't think he wanted to finish that thought. "Nothing."

… …

**Thanks to all those who reviewed and favourited. Always means a lot. **


	7. 7 Natasha

**Chapter Seven**

**Natasha** stood at the hostel room window, with the lights off she could see the street outside. They had finally gotten Bruce to sleep, he had kept vigil with them for the entire four days, refusing to take the shift pattern Natasha and Juliette adopted do that there would always be someone on watch. Finally days of panic and worry had worn him out, coupled with the heat, and he was lying, curled in on himself on the bed. Technically it was Juliette's turn to have a nap as well, but the heat had prevented that. What made most people nod off in a summer doze was unbearably hot for her.

"Are you okay?" Juliette asked finally after an hour or so of silence. Never, not in the months they had been grieving for Phil, had she asked is Natasha was alright. Not those exact words.

"He's back. I'm fine. Not that you ever asked."

"How could I, Tasha?" Juliette looked away, cradling her cup of water as if it was tea. "I couldn't go out of my way to lie to you. So I didn't ask, I listened but I couldn't ask you anything." Natasha mellowed slightly, but Juliette hadn't had to lose anyone, so she couldn't give her complete sympathy.

"He's back, it's fine now." Natasha was no longer running on empty, she didn't need to be on the base with Phil to sleep easily, just having the hole in her world refilled was enough. When she woke up her eyes were no longer red from holding back tears she had refused to shed. When asked before how things were, Black Widow had replied they were fine. Now she didn't have to lie.

"He told me, you know, about you." Natasha span around, the window forgotten. Juliette wasn't looking at her, tracing the rim of her cup absently.

"Then you understand?" She nodded slowly, finally looking up at Natasha.

"If I had been in the same position," Juliette paused before shaking her head. "I would have backed down, or been killed out in the field." They sat in an awkward silence for a while, one keeping watch on the door, the other the window.

"We have to move," Natasha said at last, looking over at Bruce. "As soon as he wakes up we have to leave."

"Moving is too dangerous. We've lost the window of safety. I can't risk covering our tracks again. We've got another day here before we start running into trouble." With their false trails and hacking, they had created a mist Ross wouldn't be able to get through. However, it was wearing thin and the balance between going to ground and SHIELD still being able to find them was slipping.

"Twenty four hours," Natasha conceded. She checked her phone religiously every hour, to make sure Phil hadn't failed to call. It was pointless, and only served to give her something to do. It shouldn't have taken that long, unless something had gone wrong, or SHIELD couldn't risk contacting them directly.

They were on the street, the three of them walking slowly along the pavement. They were vulnerable there, very vulnerable. The risk of staying somewhere too long, now that Juliette could no longer access the authorities for fear of detection had forced them out of their fourth hotel. Bruce walked in the middle of their group, next to Natasha. The sun allowed them to sport glasses and a sun cap without looking out of place, keeping Bruce's face well hidden. Juliette alternated between being a hundred yards in front, then doubling back and following them. They were giving SHIELD a chance to find them, walking in plain view of CCTV cameras. They were also running the risk of Ross catching them.

Bruce was tense beside her, which made Natasha tense as well. He couldn't relax, not when his nightmare was behind them. Natasha had her hand in her pocket, hiding her handgun. It wouldn't stop Hulk, but it would stop Ross.

"Natalie," a familiar voice came from the crowd around them. She had seen him approach, letting a little smile form, all as part of the casual show of course. Phil fell into step with them, giving Banner a reassuring smile. "Maybe you'd like to come in out of the sun?"

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Bruce answered, looking relieved. He made the mistake of glancing around and Natasha tensed, if Ross was watching that could spell danger. Phil let it pass, leading them down another busy street and into the staircase to an over-shop flat. He left the door open for Juliette to follow when she caught up. The stairway was dark, the only light coming from the open door at the top. Natasha followed Phil up, coming straight into a plain bedsit, occupied by two other people. Hill and another agent, she attached the name Hughes to his face stood facing them.

"You can relax now, Doctor," Hill said. "Ross' men are being taken care of." They all turned as the bathroom door opened, revealing Juliette.

"Don't you know how to use front doors?" Phil asked her, letting a bit of exasperation slip into his voice.

"Doors are for people with no imagination. There's a dead man in your hallway," she told them casually. "He has one of our boys sticking a knife in him so I figured he was a bad guy." Bruce looked around, slightly panicked.

"He's dead, doc," she said brightly. Natasha peered at the screen on Hill's laptop, which had a map of Orlando and agents' positions marked in real time.

"Agent Hill will escort you back to New York, Doctor Banner," Phil told them. Natasha and Juliette shared a look, wondering where they were going if not with Bruce. "Mede, Tasha." They followed him into the back room and down the fire escape. "We're going to Nevada."

"Splendid, a tour of the hottest places in the States." They ignored Juliette as they walked along, getting straight into a black Fiat. Natasha was higher up in the pecking order and got the passenger seat next to Phil, Juliette climbing in the back.

"Why?" Natasha asked as Phil drove off, sunglasses still in place.

"Clint's meeting us there. We're to terminate Hornet." Through the mirror, the girls stared at each other. They had been ordered to leave Hornet alone before. "Well done, you had us running to Miami along with Ross."

"Really?" Juliette sat up, smiling at the praise.

"No, I'm sending you to IT when we get back; you are the worst hacker I've ever met."

… …

**For anyone who's interested, the conversation between Phil and Natasha when they were told he was alive is up under the title Busy. It's short and there might be more, but it wasn't vital to this plot so I cut it out and had Clint narrate instead.**


	8. 8 Bruce

**Chapter Eight**

**Bruce** looked around the room nervously; he was still too uptight about the situation to relax as Maria said. The other agent left them as well, saying that he had to tidy up. Bruce wasn't sure he wanted to know what that meant.

"You're safe, Bruce," Maria said gently, looking up from her computer. He shook his head. Ross was out there, and he was close by, that didn't count as safe in his eyes. Bruce couldn't shake the haunted look from his eyes that had been in place since Natasha had received the call in Davies' house.

"People are dying because of me," he said quietly. "SHIELD's people and Ross' men." As Natasha had said: more red on his ledger.

"They're dying because they chose to follow the orders of a man like Ross. I was in the army, Bruce; I know they have a choice." He blinked in surprise; somehow he had expected her to have only had time to go straight into SHIELD, to be that high up the ranks. "He isn't sanctioned by the council in this, and they'll be aware of that."

"Then they're loyal to their commander."

"It's not your fault, don't try and convince yourself it is." He watched as she tapped out a list of commands before shutting the laptop and gathering the few traces of their presence in the flat.

"Whose living room did we rent out?" he asked her, gesturing to the cramped and almost unfurnished room around them.

"Hughes went and borrowed the key from an estate agent's. He'll come back and wipe it clean once we've left. There's a plane waiting to take us back to New York, it won't leave until the rest of the division are done with Ross' men, but if you like we can go now. It might make you feel safer." He doubted he would feel particularly safe until he was sure Ross was off his trail. Even so, it was kind of her to think about it.

"Where would actually be safer?" he asked her.

"There isn't much in it, therefore wherever you would feel more comfortable." Bruce smiled slightly, offering to take her bag.

"Then we should probably let him wipe it and get the keys back." She led him across the hallway to a fire escape, walking closer than Natasha had as they went down the backstreet. No one passed them until they came out onto the main road, Maria taking out keys for a silver Astra.

"Budget cuts?" Bruce asked.

"These fit in better than black Acuras with tinted windows." Bruce looked at the dash, pretty sure that it was bugged. He decided to be careful in phrasing his next question.

"And Greyhound?"

"We're looking for him. I'll tell you when I get an update back at the jet." That was a good as her plainly telling him they were being listened to, if not watched. He let them listen to their silence as she drove towards the airfield. As they stopped at a red light a beeping started on the previously silent radio.

"Hill, I've got Doctor Banner with me." Bruce tried to look out of the window to give her some privacy and pretend he wasn't listening.

"Well that answers my question," Fury's voice came through. "Ross isn't with his men in Orlando. He has returned to the San Jose base. His appeal failed. Have Hughes clean up and come back." The radio went dead.

Bruce glanced over at Maria, surprised to see she had a tiny smile on her face.

"He doesn't have a legal excuse to come after you anymore," she told him. "Anything he does now will give us a free hand to move against him."

"SHIELD would fight Ross because of me?" Bruce didn't know if he was pleased by that or not. He was the cause of enough deaths without starting some internal conflict within the army and secret services.

"Of course, we would." He turned to her when she made the pause at we. She was too much a spy to let that slip out by accident. Neither of them said another word until Maria pulled up outside an airfield hanger and they got out.

"It's clean," she told him, taking the bag of equipment out of the back seat. "You told Davies to run." She wasn't accusing him.

"He didn't need that much persuading. He was a good liar, Natasha believed him for long enough. I didn't think he would hurt Juliette though." Maria shrugged as she led him into a small cabin inside the jet.

"She'll live and not make the same mistakes." She crossed her arms as he sat down in front of her. "That's the way it works, Bruce."

"Will SHIELD find him?"

"Probably, he wasn't as good as you were." It felt odd that they kept complimenting him on his ability to hide. It obviously hadn't been good enough to slip under SHIELD's radar. "He has the file though." Bruce had handed Davies the file on him and an explanation of exactly what would happen in every circumstance from his acceptance into the Avengers to him being deemed a threat.

"He has his choices now, without Natasha holding a gun to his head." That was all Bruce knew he could have asked for. Giving Davies time to look his options over. "Thank you, for helping." Maria was taking a risk, how big a one she hadn't shared, but big enough to warrant him owing her a favour.

"You won't be given this chance if a similar situation arises with the other two," she warned him. "Even if we knew where Hemlock and Jupiter were. I can't guarantee I can get the files to them before they're made to come in. Coulson deals with the Avengers now."

"So why are you here?" Bruce found himself asking with a slight smile.

"I deal with Ross." They caught each other's eye for a moment before she looked away. "We'll come down on him like a tonne of bricks if he sends anyone out after you. We have full authority to now. For him to go against a council order, if it puts lives in danger or compromises world security, it's treason."

"He'll go to prison?" Bruce had never thought about what he wanted to happen to Ross, except for him to leave him be. Prison, a cage, Bruce's own nightmare, or something more permanent, neither had entered his mind as he ran.

"Not if the right person catches him first." Maria refused to look at him, pulling up her laptop screen instead. There was a note in her voice that rang of steel. He reminded himself she had mentioned the army. Now he wasn't so surprised.

"Everyone's aboard, ma'am," Hughes told them, his dark head coming round the door. "We're good to go." Underneath them the engines started as the jet taxied out of the hangar.

"An hour and we'll be back in New York," said Maria, offering Bruce a bottle of water. "Hiding's over." They briefly shared a smile before the agent came back and he was left to sit there watching her type up her brief.


	9. 9 Clint

**Chapter Nine**

**Clint** let the punching bag fall aside as he stepped off the mat, ruffling through his jacket on its peg for his phone. The ringing got increasingly louder until he found it.

"Sir." Steve had stopped hitting his bag as well to give him some quiet, and looked busy reapplying tape to his knuckles.

"There's a jet waiting to take you to Nevada, you'll be picked up in five minutes. Bring your bow," Phil said. Behind him Clint could hear a street, cars and people talking to hide Phil's voice in the crowd.

"On my way." Phil hung up and Clint pocketed his phone, wishing he had time to shower before he was sent out.

"Going somewhere?" asked Steve from across the gym.

"Nevada." Clint made do with a splash of bottled water and a towel.

"That's where Tony said Hornet was," the Captain said slowly. "They're bringing her in after all." A slight scowl crossed Steve's face. "Nice of them to ask." Clint hadn't asked. It wasn't his place when he was given an order. It made sense, with Natasha and Juliette after Greyhound, before they had been side tracked by Ross, to send him after Hornet.

"You can still refuse."

"We both know I can't." Steve turned back to the punching bag. "You explained about Champion status, that's the only way I could keep you guys together and actually lead this team. Fury can send whoever he, or the council wants to us and I'll have no choice at all." Clint sighed, Steve was right, no matter what pleasantries Fury came up with, Steve had no real power.

"It's all voluntary anyway," he ventured. "You, Bruce, Tony, I guess Thor as well. Natasha and I are the only ones ordered here. You guys can walk away." Steve gave him a sad look before shaking his head.

"The army declared I was dead. Fury has some documents, reassigning me to SHIELD. It means I have to take his orders." That seemed grossly unfair to Clint. Captain America shouldn't have to follow SHIELD orders.

"Did he say who you answered to? That's important, if it's him you'll be okay, if it's the council then you're screwed."

"He didn't. Just said it was paperwork to stop the army snooping around and declaring me a fake. I'm a soldier, Clint; someone's got to tell me what to do." Clint didn't agree with that. Steve wasn't a soldier, he was THE soldier, and years of Phil's mentoring had ingrained all that in deep.

"You know, if they're going to push Hornet onto you anyway, you might as well go check her out for yourself first. Natasha was sent, about a year ago, to Nevada. Wasp surveillance, she called it. Sounds like Hornet to me. Elko Nevada, I flew the plane that picked her up for some reason. Tell Tony, maybe you guys can figure something out." Clint checked his watch, his five minutes were up. "I've gotta go." He grabbed his bow from his room and was in the lift within thirty seconds.

"Stark," he said to the ceiling, knowing Tony could most probably hear. "It was your hacking that found out; I never breathed a word of it to anyone."

"Silent as the grave, Feathers," Tony replied. "Race you there."

Clint stood on the hot tarmac, watching the second jet fly in. It had barely stopped moving before the door opened and its three occupants came out. Clint had been expecting Phil only, Natasha and Juliette were a surprise.

"Where's Banner?" he asked as they came up to him.

"Hill's taking him back to New York. We're here to terminate Hornet." Phil didn't stop walking as he spoke, his three agents falling into step behind him. "Barton, I want you watching the exits, fire as a last resort, there are civilians around and we do not need the cops involved if someone sees something. Mede and Tasha will go in. Make it clean, and make it quick. We need to get back onto Davies." It was pointless, they were professionals, yet Clint found it reassuring. They weren't the snarky, doubting words of a new handler who had no experience with them. Even when he was teaching them to suck eggs, it was Phil's voice Clint wanted to be the annoying buzz in his ear, no one else's.

The house was a bungalow, Clint had found his perch in a tree, hardly ideal or inventive but the lack of high rise buildings gave him no other option. He had the back door covered, and the front. Juliette went in the front; Natasha broke the back door's lock. They kept radio silence, Clint couldn't even hear them breathing over the open comm.

Clint wondered what Hornet's enhancements were. Tony hadn't found anything on her, except the name. It had been a mistake; he realised, to tell Tony and Steve where to go. Hornet was a threat, they were there to kill her, and he had just sent his two teammates to her without forewarning or back up. The silence stretched out for too long. There wouldn't be a shot, Juliette's weapon of choice was a knife and Tasha knew better than to sound the alarm by shooting. A car drove past, making him tense up until it had passed by. Still there was silence.

"She's not here," Natasha's voice came at last over the comm. "It's empty. Hornet's not here." Clint heard what he thought might have been a curse. If she wasn't there, he wondered, had she followed Tony back to New York?

"There's a note," said Juliette and Clint heard her telling Tasha again, the two of them murmuring quietly. "We'll decide our own team, thanks. Love, Stark."

"Stark?" Phil definitely did swear that time. "Get out of there, you two. How the hell did Stark find out where Hornet was?" Clint kept silent. "Get back to the hangar." The girls came out of the house and Clint met them on the pavement.

"Fury's going to kill IT over this," Tasha murmured. Clint refused to meet their gazes, walking along in front of them with his backpack. Hornet was a threat; he just wished that he knew why. Maybe then he could warn Tony, and Steve before the Captain got himself into trouble by trying to have some control over his team.

"Once he's done with Stark." There was a dreary conviction in Juliette's clipped voice that chilled Clint. Fury could come down hard on people, and his situation was already precarious enough with the council. Clint had messed it up again, without needing an alien with mind control powers to ruin things.

"Why's Hornet a threat?" he dared ask them.

"Because we can't control her," Phil answered, apparently they had left the comm open. "Captain America has a sense of duty and decency, Stark's got a good heart and he's needy enough to have to stay in one place, Banner's too afraid of his power to let it rule him, Thor's gone and has Asgardian honour which helps. You three are under orders and easy to terminate. Even Greyhound is predictably cautious, Hemlock can be enticed in and Jupiter hasn't been a threat to us in forty years, despite her power. Hornet has nothing we can control her with. Imagine any of the others without what makes them the good guys, and tell me what you'd do, Clint." He didn't need to think for long. A Bruce who used Hulk instead of suppressing him, that was the Creature Ross created in Harlem. The same went for Steve and Tony, and Clint knew only too well what Thor's people were capable of.

"I'd put an arrow through their eyes, sir."


	10. 10 Phil

**Chapter Ten**

**Phil** was on the phone when the three of them sat down in the jet, Natasha taking the pilot's seat. Hughes was on the other end, after being taken out of Ross' division where he had been spying on the general, he had been assigned to finding Greyhound in Florida.

"We've got a lock on him, sir. In Miami, he tried to board a plane. He's waiting in custody there now." Finally, someone had given Phil some good news.

"Keep him there whilst we deal with Stark." Phil sighed, wiping the perspiration off his forehead. It was too hot to be running around deserts. "Was there any sign in the house of how long she'd been gone? Anything at all?" he asked the girls, or more precisely Juliette since Natasha was piloting.

"Bathroom cabinet was open, mostly empty, a few open drawers. She left in a hurry, but the fruit bowl was still fresh. I'd say Stark was there less than twenty four hours ago. We just missed him, like as not."

"Was he in New York, Barton, when you left?" Phil hadn't missed how Clint was staring at the floor more than usual, and refused to look up when asked a question.

"Yes, sir." Phil had no problem believing that Stark had crossed the country in less time than Clint had. What he had to know was how Tony had known about Hornet's location, and why the sudden move to find her. The order to terminate Hornet was known to Fury, Phil and the three agents in the plane with him. No one else. He didn't want to think that one of them had gone against the code of silence and told Stark. Natasha wouldn't have, he knew instantly. Juliette hadn't had time to contact Stark. Clint hadn't known they were going to terminate Hornet until they had reached Nevada. Phil hated himself for lining them up like that, trying to figure out who had leaked information.

Phil punched in Stark's number, getting the automatic answer phone before Pepper picked up.

"Phil! It's great to hear from you." He still felt guilty about that, Pepper had probably been the only person to cry at his memorial.

"Is Stark there?" he asked her.

"Yes, he's in a meeting right now, with Steve, uh Captain Rogers and Miss Roth. Hang on, I'll put you through."

"Wrath?" Clint asked quietly.

"Hornet," said Juliette. "Anne Roth. R-O-T-H, not wrath."

"Good afternoon, agent," Stark's steely voice came echoing out of the speaker.

"What have you done, Stark?" Phil asked him.

"Exercising our right to be a team. Are you pissed off because we beat you to it? You were about to bring Anne here in, so we went to look for ourselves." Phil rubbed his head in exasperation at how badly Stark had grasped what was going on. "This is the bit where you say thanks; we managed to find another of your Avengers-in-waiting without having them try to eat England first." Phil glanced at Juliette who held out her arm for him to see the tiny scratch marks, that were quickly fading.

"You don't know what you're doing, Stark. Hornet wasn't part of the initiative."

"Neither was I," a quiet voice in the background said. Phil winced as Banner spoke, and heard a door close on the other end.

"Well, you're on your way here anyway, so we'll see you in a few hours, depending on how slow your jet is." Stark cut the call abruptly.

There was silence in the jet. Phil looked from the back of Tasha's head to where Clint was staring at the floor, to Juliette who was having a fight with a water bottle that refused to open.

"And what do you think?" he asked them. "Tasha, Clint, you're Avengers now. Should we force Greyhound, and eventually Hemlock and Jupiter on them?" Neither answered for a long time, until Tasha span around, switching auto-pilot on.

"They were included for a reason," she said slowly. "Greyhound would be useful, and if he could be made to stay he would keep Banner stable, proving he wasn't the only one to get hurt when the US tried to recreate the super soldier. I think we need them, but we blew our chance to get Stark and Rogers to agree." Clint nodded, to save himself saying anything. Phil knew they had missed their chance, that by keeping his survival a secret they had abused the trust the Avengers had had in SHIELD. His initiative, his idea, was falling apart just as it had been proved to work so well.

"What did Bruce mean?" Clint asked. "I was the one they didn't plan, nit him."

"The council wanted Blonsky, not Banner. We avoided that, but Tony must have told him," Phil said quickly, shrugging. He pulled out his phone again, calling Maria.

"If it's about Banner, I'm on it," she answered, without even so much as a hello.

"He knows the council wanted Blonsky."

"Great." Phil frowned, that meant she was onto something else.

"There's more?"

"Ross wants to swap, Banner for Blonsky, and he might just manage it. When are you getting to New York?" Maria was walking along, her voice dropping and rising with each step.

"ETA, Tasha?" Phil called.

"Seventeen minutes to landing."

"We'll be there in thirty." He heard Maria call to someone and the pacing stopped.

"Understood." She put the phone down and Phil had to wipe the sweat away again, even as they came into New York he was still too hot. The months of just letting his organs recover had made him weak, in a fight he would be useless, leaving his agents there on their own. As capable as they were, he had always been able to match them, more or less. When Juliette held out her water bottle, he took it, when before he was known for never being seen to eat, drink or sleep when they were on the clock.

"Are we still under orders to terminate Hornet?" she asked him. Phil thought about it, then shook his head.

"Stay on guard. Tasha and Clint will be part of whatever team brief there is going on. You stay at the edge, ready in case I give you the signal. Then you terminate her." Juliette nodded, shifting her knife's sheath back slightly. "Tasha, Clint, don't leave weapons on show. Juliette's the SHIELD agent here, you two have to be on their side, or at least look like you are."

Tasha touched the plane down at the base airfield and they were out of it into a car before anyone could count the four figures. Phil sighed as he took the driver's seat, hating the idea of hiding inside his own base. Another one of Fury's great ideas, he thought, with a hint of sourness that was new to him.

… …

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! **


	11. 11 Clint

**Chapter Eleven**

**Clint** walked behind Natasha and Phil as they entered Tony's conference room. Facing them were Steve, Tony and an angel faced brunette. Clint inwardly groaned. Tony was on her side: she was smiley and cute.

"So, when you messed up on Greyhound, you thought you'd send us Anne here, instead?" Tony asked, his arms crossed. Clint assessed Anne, or Hornet, for dangers. She wasn't muscular enough to be a physical threat, but then again, Bruce was equally deceiving. Clint wondered where Bruce was, a seat was pushed back against the wall which signalled he had been there. Obviously, it had been him who had shut the door during the call. It only took Clint half a second more to realise where Maria was.

"I'm flattered," Anne said her voice a soft southern drawl that made Clint wince again. Tony was grinning slightly, whether from the girl next to him or from supposedly outsmarting SHIELD.

"You called us together, and we saved your ass, well, not yours personally but in general. So don't try and tell us who we have to work with." Tony smirked at them all. Clint knew it was his fault, for giving over classified information and thinking he knew better than Phil. For all four of them to go to Nevada to terminate Hornet, she had to be dangerous.

"So, to prove your point," Natasha said as she sat down. "You invite someone you think we're going to make join you, just so that you can ask first? Aren't you sort of showing you're fine with what SHIELD is trying to do?"

"What I don't understand," interjected Steve quietly. Clint wondered how he did it, to manage suddenly to get every eye to turn to him, and stop Tony from answering Natasha immediately. "Is why SHIELD thinks we need more people. I understand that Miss Roth here and many others have valuable talents, but the Avengers were created to stop Loki, and the six of us did that."

"Maybe I should go," Anne said as she stood up. "I'll wait outside whilst you guys talk it over." Clint really hated the smile she used on Tony; he had seen Natasha give it to a mark a thousand times and knew exactly what it did. He didn't miss the tiny nod Phil gave and the sudden lack of Juliette. Clint wondered if she was just following, or if they would rid of the Hornet problem in a few minutes. It wouldn't go down well with Tony or Steve for that matter if Juliette did kill Anne.

"You've got no idea what you've done, Stark," Phil said as soon as the door was closed. "Hornet's dangerous, she should have been terminated."

"You were going to kill her?" Steve looked shocked.

"Do you have any clue as to what she can do?" Clint thought Phil ought to sit down, he suddenly looked old enough to be their real father instead of just honorary one.

"Telepathy, she can communicate with people over short distances, which I thought was useful if someone forgets their comm or can't reach it." That came from Stark, which amazed them. Clint shuddered slightly at the thought of that, he had had enough of people playing around with his head.

"I suppose she didn't mention the twelve deaths she's been responsible for in the last two years?" Phil added. "One was witnessed by a SHIELD agent. You wouldn't like the details, Mr Stark. She's a killer, and she should never have been given the power to invade another's mind." They were all looking at Phil now, Tony slightly disbelievingly. Clint could see why, Natasha and Juliette had the dangerous build and their every move when not under cover betrayed how deadly they were. Anne Roth had the stature and gait of a pretty waitress.

"She doesn't seem like the type to commit any murders," Tony shot back.

"How can you say that facing Natasha?" Clint asked him. He was worried now, Juliette might not know about Hornet's abilities, and she was running right in there to kill her.

"She wasn't tried because how could death by mind control be made to stick? She was on SHIELD's threat list for a long time; Fury was convinced that it was only her initial reactions, her trying to control her powers. He gave the order to terminate her because she's too much of a threat now." Phil had taken a seat by now, looking across the table at Steve and Tony. "You can't consider her as an Avenger, Captain." Clint saw Steve sigh and finally look up from his hands.

"I don't have the power to do anything," he said quietly. "Past crimes or not, it doesn't matter."

"Fury doesn't want Hornet on your team," Phil told him. But if he did, they all knew, Steve wouldn't be able to say no.

"You- You've sent Juliette after her already!" Tony spat, standing up. "What happened to her second chance?"

"She got it, but she's too much of a threat now." Tony and Phil had a furious stare off until Stark broke away.

"Jarvis, where are Anne and Juliette?"

"Agent Mede is currently in kitchen; Miss Roth has left the tower. Sir, may I suggest that Agent Mede receives medical assistance immediately? My sensors do not detect any movement." Natasha was at the door in a flash, before anyone else could react. Phil had stood up quickly too.

"Hornet's gone?" Steve asked, following suit. Clint ignored him, running after Natasha into the corridor.

"Miss Roth left the tower via the elevator three minutes ago." A variety of curses echoed along the corridor.

"Hill." Clint heard Phil snap into his earpiece. "Get Doctor Banner to the kitchen at once." Natasha was ahead of him at the kitchen door and disappeared around the corner. Clint skidded to a halt to take in the scene. Juliette lying on the floor face down next to the window. Around her, signs of a fight, her knife, covered in blood was discarded on the floor. Clint picked it up, hoping it wasn't hers.

"Tasha?" Clint asked, crouching down next to her. There was no wound, no obvious reason why Juliette wasn't moving.

"She's alive," Natasha answered, her voice woodenly removed, she had fallen into mission mode, Clint noted. "She's barely breathing." He helped her shift Juliette into the recovery position.

"There's a medical suite downstairs," Tony called. "Pepper made me put one in. Jarvis, tell Bruce to meet us down there."

"He is on his way, sir." Clint lifted his partner up, wishing she had less muscle and was a light as she looked. The others made way for him as he carried her out.

"Now do you see our point?" Natasha snapped at Tony, and Clint didn't want to point out that she hadn't known about Hornet's threat until five minutes beforehand.

"Self-defence," Stark countered.

"We'll see when she wakes up." Steve's voice calmed them down as Clint stepped into the lift. The only space left was filled with Natasha immediately, leaving Phil with the bloody knife in his hands alongside the other two.


	12. 12 Bruce

**Chapter Twelve**

**Bruce** stared at the table in front of him, refusing to look at any of the others. Steve and Tony were next to him, the woman they had brought back at the opposite end of the table. Maria was glaring at them from the side of the room. What Tony had just told him before they sat down echoed around his head. Blonsky. The council had wanted Blonsky, not him; they thought the Abomination was a war hero, and that Harlem had been Bruce's fault.

"You don't know what you're doing, Stark. Hornet wasn't part of the initiative," Phil's voice over the phone said sternly.

"Neither was I," Bruce said quietly, before he could stop himself. He wanted to go, to get away from the tense soup of politics the team was suddenly caught up it. Vaguely he heard Steve call after him, but Bruce carried on until he was half way down the corridor.

After all he had done, the council still wanted Blonsky as an Avenger, despite the destruction he had wrought. Bruce didn't have a problem with them not wanting him, that would have been a relief.

"Bruce." He stopped at Maria's voice, turning around slowly.

"If I wasn't an Avenger, why did you drag me in?" Bruce asked her. Tony had said Phil sent him to talk to Ross and annoy him into refusing to hand Blonsky over. That didn't explain why Natasha had come for him in Calcutta.

"When Coulson and Fury wrote up the Avengers Initiative, you were on it. The council refused, they wanted Blonsky instead. Stark helped put that out of the question." She explained it too well, too quickly for him to do anything but nod. "Are you leaving?"

"I just wanted to get out of there," Bruce answered, shrugging. He hadn't had a plan when he walked out except to leave them to their bickering. "I could do with some air."

"Then I suggest you try the roof, Ross has just made another move." Bruce felt the colour and heat drain from his face at that. "He wants to reverse the decision he made when Stark asked him for Blonsky. He wants to exchange you both."

"No, no he can't." Bruce was walking again now, almost running down the hallway, the only thought in his mind was to leave, to run again.

"Bruce, he won't." Maria stopped him with a light hand on his arm, turning him around to face her. "I told you I'd deal with Ross. He won't get his hands on you." The steel in her made him believe her, almost.

"The council-"

"Let us deal with the council. He won't get to you, Bruce." He nodded, his shoulder relaxing slightly. They were spies; Maria was one of the best, so why did he trust her? "Will you go back to the conference room?"

"No, I don't think I have anything else to add." Loud footsteps behind them, Pepper's unmistakable heels on the floor made them turn, and Bruce felt Maria step away, not realising how close they had been standing.

"Bruce, I thought you were all in a meeting." Pepper gave them both a bright smile. "Are you guys done?"

"No, Tony and Steve are still in there." Bruce felt slightly sorry for her; Anne had definitely caught Tony's attention for all the wrong reasons.

"That's alright; it was you I wanted to talk to anyway. Could we?" Maria slipped away into the walls or air, which Bruce decided was part of SHIELD initial training. He followed Pepper at a polite distance, wondering what she could want with him. Her caution at the idea of him had fled when Tony elaborated on the falling out of the sky incident. Nothing he could say would change her mind; he had become Pepper's new favourite person.

"She turned up in the lobby just as I was coming in." She, Bruce wondered. "I'm just glad you didn't have to keep her waiting long." Pepper opened the door to a lounge Bruce didn't remember seeing before. "I'll leave you two to it."

Bruce stared at the woman sitting on the cream sofa, who jumped up as soon as she heard them come in.

"Bruce!" Betty gave him a watery smile, taking half a step forward. Bruce just blinked, trying to get his head around the ghosts that popped up.

"Betty." His voice sounded dull and less than pleased, making her smile falter.

"Hi." Hi, Bruce thought, almost too detached from himself to feel angry or bitter. Hi, after everything. "Miss Potts let me up. She seemed to know who I was."

"It was probably in a file." Bruce certainly hadn't mentioned her, and he didn't really want to give her the impression he had.

"Oh. How are you?" Neither of them had moved to sit down, they both just stood facing each other, awkwardly.

"Fine and you?" She nodded, and didn't quite look him in the eye. "Why are you here, Betty?"

"I came to see you, to see how you were. I heard, the whole thing a few months ago, it was all over the news." Bruce turned away from her slightly, looking at the wispy pictures on the wall. He wondered if this was Pepper's lounge or something, it was distinctly un-Tony-like.

"Why?" he asked her again. "Why come now, when-" Bruce broke off, unable to keep thinking about that day. When Betty didn't answer he had to carry on. "I waited. For two days, I sat there waiting for you. I was only going to say good bye." He couldn't look at her, scared she was going to cry or say something that would unlock the heavily fortified parts of his mind.

"To say good bye?" she echoed softly. Bruce just wanted to leave, to go back into the corridor and walk away from the sudden hell hole being around there had become. It was only Maria's words, that subtle warning not to go out that stopped him.

"I never wanted to drag you into that. I shouldn't have in the first place. I just wanted to say good bye." He found himself holding the back of an armchair, leaning on it to keep himself grounded. He couldn't look at her, whatever was on her face he couldn't make himself see it.

"I'm sorry," she said finally. "Bruce, I-"

"You should go," Bruce said, a little more harshly than he intended. "The General is still after me, you're not safe here. You shouldn't have come."

"He is? Bruce, I thought he would have left you alone, now you're a hero." He stepped away when she tried to come over to him, backtracking towards the door Pepper had shut.

"I'm not a hero, Betty. If that's what you came to find, then I'm sorry but you're wrong. Nothing's changed. There are still people looking for me, this is just another stop before I have to leave again." That wasn't strictly true but he wanted her gone, almost as much as he wanted her there.

"I thought you'd be able to go back to being normal, if you could control him now."

"No." The door behind him opened, making him jump. Bruce was caught between two dark haired women as Maria stood in the doorway.

"Agent Mede's down, she needs medical assistance." There was silence for half a beat and Bruce finally looked at Betty. She wasn't even crying.

"I'll be right there," he said, the doctor's voice coming on automatically. "You should go, Betty, and be careful." Maria didn't say a thing as they walked out, for which Bruce was grateful. He ignored the quiet call of his name from the lounge.

"Agent Mede is being moved to the medical suite on this floor," Jarvis said.

"What happened?" Bruce asked, trying to block out Betty and concentrate.

"Mede is down, she was sent after Hornet, who got away."

"Someone tell Juliette these people are dangerous, before you send her after Jupiter or Hemlock." Bruce pulled back the covers of one of the beds in the medical suite, taking in stock of what Tony had put in place. Three beds, a machine he didn't recognise that was probably something to do with the arc reactor, and standard IV, heart monitors and a side room for X-rays. "Pepper didn't want to leave anything to chance."

Maria closed the cupboard Bruce had been in the process of opening to look for supplies, slipping in front of him quickly.

"Are you alright?" she asked him. He debated lying, as useless as it was.

"No, but I'm probably better off that Juliette is right now." Before she could say anything else Clint came through the door, carrying his partner like a limp rag doll. He automatically put her on the bed. Bruce checked for a wound, finding none. "What happened?" he asked the two agents. Natasha had come closer, standing unhelpfully close to the bed.

"Jarvis alerted us, a bit too late, that she wasn't moving. She was unconscious when we found her," answered Clint. Bruce found an oxygen mask, worried by how ragged and weak Juliette's breathing was.

"Was there evidence that she fell?" Bruce ran a hand along her spine, checking that they hadn't broken anything.

"Not hard, it looked like she just collapsed." Natasha hadn't said a word, unmoving as Bruce worked around her.

"Was there a needle? A dart, anything that looked like it could have introduced a toxin?"

"Yes," Phil said, coming in with Steve and Tony in tow. "Here." He handed Bruce a tiny needle. "There's a SHIELD doctor on the way as well."

"Bruce can manage, can't he?" Tony asked, standing too close. Bruce knew he couldn't exactly tell them all to leave, but he did his best to try and make them stand away from the bed.

"I learnt how to deal with third world problems, cholera, that sort of thing. Juliette would do better with someone who actually went to medical school. Natasha, please, I need to get her hooked up to the monitors." Phil took a hold of the redhead's arm, pulling her out of the way.

"We'll give you some space," said Steve, ushering Tony out, Phil navigating Natasha towards the door. Bruce didn't understand what it was they were saying to each other, but they were out of his bubble of concentration that centred on Juliette. Only Clint was still there, and he was helping to set up the machines.

"I had to pass as a nurse for three months," the archer explained. "Stark has an analysis machine for a blood sample." Clint was calmer than Bruce expected him to be, it being his teammate who was unconscious on the bed.

"Why is she sent after the super-humans?" Bruce asked as he prepped the needle.

"She's the killer, and she can outrun Tasha. It's about time someone told us what we were going into before we met it, it might give us a fighting chance." Bruce recognised the underlying anger in Clint's voice and let it rest. There was something between the agents he didn't have any business delving into.

"It's the toxin, not whatever Hornet could do," he told Clint quietly.

"You don't know that, Bruce." There was the haunted look in the archer's eyes that hadn't been there in months, not since the aftermath of Loki.

"No, but people who can kill with their minds don't bother with poison."


	13. 13 Phil

Chapter Thirteen

Phil kept a hold of Natasha's arm until they were out in the corridor.

"Let me back in there," she said, her voice deceptively calm. Rogers and Stark were there, standing too close for privacy. Somewhere along the line they had dropped into Russian.

"No, you're only in the way. Let Banner and Clint look after her until the doctor gets here."

"She should never have gone after Hornet alone." Phil sighed, looking away. If Natasha had really felt like it he couldn't have held her back and kept her out of the room. She knew that and didn't try, some vestige of respect for him coming through to her. He knew that sending Juliette after Hornet had been a mistake, but he had hoped, somehow, that his hunch had been right. He had a lump of guilt obstructing his throat.

"She was briefed," he answered, telling her what he wanted her to believe. "She knew what she was going into." He had told Juliette briefly, but she hadn't been prepared. The information was too classified, kept too close to his chest.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Captain Rogers asked him politely. "Agent Hill has informed SHIELD, they have people tracking Hornet." Phil nodded, it would mean that other people were in harm's way and the threat of information leaking out about Hornet was greatly increased. Even within SHIELD, the fewer people who knew about Hornet the better.

"Thank you, sir," he said quietly, removing his hand from Tasha's arm. Pepper had arrived, and joined them milling around the infirmary door.

"Do we have all the equipment they need?" Pepper asked, peering into the room. Phil knew he should probably get Tasha away from the door and set her to something useful to keep her quiet.

"You've got more than most hospitals," answered Banner with a brief smile as he came out. "She's stable and the analysis on what Hornet gave her has started. I assume the SHIELD doctor will have her file?" Phil could feel his gut tense at that. Medical files were precious, dangerous to the individual if they were read by the wrong person, and guarded as closely as the locations of bases or assets.

"Yes." He needed to speak to Maria, to check who was coming and how much they knew. Phil's arm went back to Tasha's elbow, keeping her where she was.

"I'm going to see if we can watch Jarvis' security footage," Tony said suddenly. Phil thought he was still lobbying for Hornet's status as a good guy. "Well, Agent?"

"She won't be waking up for hours," Banner informed them.

"Lead the way." Phil followed, trailing Tasha and Captain Rogers towards the conference room again. There, Stark flicked a huge flat screen on. Tasha stood behind Phil's chair; he could see her tight with anxiety.

"Jarvis, replay the security footage from the kitchen cameras, from the moment Anne walked in." The kitchen appeared, in colour, as Hornet entered. Out of her pocket she took a small black box and placed it on the side.

"What's that?" the Captain asked.

"Looks like a Dictaphone," Stark replied. "It records your voice then plays it back." Hornet stared out of the window for a moment, her back to the camera.

"And Mede walks through the door," she drawled, a split second before the door opened and Juliette walked in. "Can I help you, agent?" Juliette didn't waste time, her knife was out. "Not many right handed people are forced to use their left." There was the briefest pause in Juliette's movement forward, her arm hovering down slightly before she slipped around the island counter and her knife went straight to Hornet's neck. There she stopped, as if frozen solid. Hornet laughed, moving away.

"Come on, surely you aren't new to telepathy? I thought you would have come across it." Juliette turned around slowly, the camera showing the pure shock on her face. "You don't mind," continued Hornet, switching the Dictaphone on.

"Not a jot," Juliette answered, her voice echoed on the recording. "How did-" Again her voice was in time with Hornet's pre-recorded one. "That's a neat trick."

"Not a trick." They could see, facing the camera that Hornet wasn't speaking.

"Most-" Juliette stopped talking. "People use a puppet." Hornet ducked just as Juliette flipped over, missing the smaller woman's back by inches.

"It's really rather simple, when you know the next move," Hornet answered with a smile. She ducked the next blow, making it look like a choreographed fight where the actors knew what was coming next. "What can you do, when the enemy knows who you are?" Just as Juliette turned, she dropped her knife, her hands flying to her temples. Hornet produced the needle from her pocket and it went into Juliette's shoulder. The agent moved fast, sending Hornet across the room to fall against the worktop. "You're quick, very quick."

"Get out of my head," Juliette spat, picking up her knife again. She didn't bother crossing the room, throwing it at Hornet who rolled aside. It sliced through her arm, bouncing away as Hornet muffled a scream with her other hand. Juliette staggered around the central island, grabbing onto it for support. She tried to reach out for Hornet before hitting the floor, ripping the needle out of her shoulder.

"Ta ta," Hornet smirked, wrapping a towel around her arm as she left the screen, pocketing the Dictaphone. Juliette's head raised up one more time before it hit the floor and she stopped moving.

Phil stared at the screen. He had sent Juliette because he had thought she could handle Hornet's powers, he had never thought they could work to that efficiency. If he had been anyone else, he would have been impressed with what Hornet could do. Instead, she was simply a threat.

"Do you still think that was self-defence?" Natasha asked Tony coldly.

"Juliette was trying to kill her," came the less than certain reply. "And Hornet didn't kill Juliette in return."

"I'd say that was self-defence," Captain Rogers agreed. Phil was standing up now; he wanted to know what Hornet had done to Juliette's mind.

"She didn't call for help," Natasha shot back. "She could have called you, or anyone."

"Leave it, Tasha. It doesn't matter," said Phil. Whether Stark believed them or not, he didn't care. Hornet was a threat and could have compromised Juliette. "Go and find out who the doctor is, and check his clearance level."


	14. 14 Bruce

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Bruce** stepped back as he let Doctor Corea finish looking Juliette over. The tall Sri Lankan doctor had arrived ten minutes before from SHIELD, Bruce letting him take charge with relief.

"Bruce?" Maria asked, he hadn't noticed her come in. Now that the panic was over and Juliette seemed alright, he had time to think about what had happened in the lounge. "She left the tower immediately." Betty was gone; he wasn't yet sure how he felt about that. He had wanted her to go; he wasn't strong enough to face the idea of her coming back. Bruce looked at Maria, standing there obviously there to help in some way. Or at least try to.

"That's good, thanks," he said. All he had wanted to do was say good bye to her, before he started on the run that he had expected would last the rest of his life. To tell her that she should forget about him and move on. Bruce had waited for her, before he risked making a phone call to Stanley. The old man had told him, very kindly, that Betty was engaged and had stopped coming to ask him if Bruce had contacted him.

Bruce didn't remember the next few days, Canada had sort of flown by out of the window and suddenly he was awake and cold, with a dull ache in his mouth.

"Doctor Corea can manage," Maria said, the spy and soldier facade slipping as she gave him a gentler, concerned look. "You look like you could use a coffee." Bruce looked back at where Corea was adjusting one of the drips and nodded. Juliette didn't need a field medic around. He would come back and check on her later.

"Ross," Bruce began quietly as they walked along. He swore he heard Maria sigh.

"We're working on it," she promised. "He can't touch you in here, and we saw her safely out of the city, if that's what you're worried about." Psychic abilities, Bruce thought, were also a part of Maria's training.

Clint looked up from the pot he was boiling on the stove as they walked in. He gave them a nod as they walked in, and a look Bruce felt a bit too hard. Maria started making coffee, giving Bruce a discreet nudge towards the counter chairs.

"What are you making?" Bruce asked Clint as he sat down.

"Stewing apples, someone ought to do something nice for Juliette and I don't want to be included on the list of people she rants at. Therefore, desert as a peace offering." Bruce wouldn't have put Clint down as someone who could cook.

"Smells good," he offered. "She'll be awake in a few hours at most, but I don't think she'll be able to keep much down straight away." Clint simply shrugged, stirring the pot with his back to them.

"I have to go and make a call, I'll be five minutes," said Maria as she put the coffee down in front of Bruce. There was silence, apart from the hiss of a stove. Bruce wondered if he should say something more about Juliette, but he didn't have much more information to give.

"So, you and Hill?" Clint asked suddenly, his voice odd. Bruce looked at him in surprise, almost coughing on his coffee.

"Uh, no. No, not at all," he answered. Maria was a friend, he thought firmly. Things hurt too much with Betty's appearance for him to have room to think like that.

"Certainly seems like it." Clint was no longer stirring the pot but Bruce couldn't see him move at all.

"Well, I can assure you it isn't," Bruce replied, just as frostily. He and Clint had been working together half an hour ago to stabilise Juliette, now he was acting oddly. It took Bruce a moment to realise that he was back in some version of normal with people who felt things like jealousy and crushes. "Look, we're friends, I guess, and we had to work together on Greyhound and she came to get me in Orlando, but that's it. Okay?" He saw Clint's stiff nod and smiled. Well, normality was weird.

"I wouldn't say sorted," Maria said as she came back in. "But we have made progress." She was happy about something, pleased by whatever she had found out. Bruce saw Clint turn around only to find Maria's back to him. "Wouldn't let you down."

"Maria-?" Clint asked, making her turn around in surprise.

"Yes, Barton?" Bruce watched them for a moment, before Clint apologised quickly and went back to his apples. The atmosphere suddenly disintegrated, making Bruce want to leave.

"I'll be around, if anyone wants me," he said vaguely, figuring that he could use a shower and a moment to try and work out what he made of the last hour. He needed time to get his head back on straight.

He hadn't realised Tony had a music room until he passed a door he had never opened and heard someone playing. Gently, Bruce pushed the door open and peeked inside.

Natasha stopped and turned around as soon as he made a noise and Bruce felt instantly bad for disturbing her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you stop," he said quietly. She shrugged, putting the cello down.

"It's just something to do," she answered. "I had to learn for a mission down in Portland." Absently she picked it up again, playing slowly and quietly.

"Juliette's asleep, she should be fine, if bed ridden for a while," Bruce told her. Natasha simply nodded and he felt like he was intruding.

"Was it poison?" The question made Bruce stop at the door.

"No, not exactly. It was salt." The playing cut off.

"Salt?"

"It's toxic, in large quantities," he explained slowly, treading carefully. "What Hornet gave her was concentrated. There won't be any side effects though, a few days and she'll be fine."

"She hates salt," Natasha said blandly, turning back to her cello. "She even hates sea water swimming." When she fell silent Bruce took it as his cue to leave her to it. Something had riled Natasha, and he didn't belong there to disturb her.

… …

**Thanks to everyone who's reviewed. **


	15. 15 Phil

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Phil** sat in the sickroom, rereading the Godfather as he waited for Juliette to wake up. Natasha had hidden herself away somewhere, which he was grateful for. She didn't do well in sickrooms, waiting. Recovery took time, and Natasha wasn't known for her patience.

"Agent Coulson?" Banner asked quietly as he tapped away at the computer across the room. "There's something I wanted to ask you." Phil sighed; he had been waiting for a question. Corea had left, Juliette was stable enough and he was needed back at the base. The towering doctor had treated Phil, one of the few who knew the truth, and if he had ever seen something odd about one of Phil's agents, he had known better than to mention it. Banner wasn't used to that, Phil could see. "The amount of salt Hornet gave Juliette shouldn't have had that reaction. Her cells held so much water in them already, far more than they should. There's nothing in her medical file about intolerance to salt."

Phil gave Banner a friendly little look.

"We all have things we would rather not have on file, you understand, Doctor." Banner stared at him for a while before he nodded. There were things that weren't in any of their files, secrets Phil kept even from SHIELD. Even from Fury.

"Here we go," Banner said suddenly, moving towards Juliette. Phil put his book down quickly, leaning forward. She had begun to move, twisting around into a more comfortable position than on her back, her breathing changed rhythm. Phil smiled as her eyes opened, the green watery circles widening as they were exposed to light. Juliette blinked for a moment before she sucked in a shuddering breath. The heart monitor next to her began to beat erratically and the shoulder Phil had been about to pat began to shake.

"What's going on?" Phil demanded, reaching out for his agent.

"Panic," answered Banner, moving around the bed quickly. "We need to calm her down." Juliette had lost what little colour she had regained whilst unconscious. Phil knew the look on her face from somewhere before.

"Juliette, shhh, calm down. It's safe." She couldn't hear him, what he was telling her made no sense. "Juliette." He placed a hand on her pale cheek and she flinched away, her eyes finally focusing on him. "Agent Mede, you're safe." Slowly her shoulders relaxed and the heart monitor went back to an elevated but no longer frantic pace. Phil smiled encouragingly at her, smoothing down her cheek gently.

"Phil?" she asked softly. "She was in my head."

"I know, we saw the recording." Banner had disappeared, Phil noted. "How do you feel?"

"Awful." Phil sighed; he now had to start the task of finding out if Juliette was compromised.

"You're going to have to tell me exactly what happened in your head. I'm sorry, Juliette but you have to." Her eyes shut firmly. "Juliette."

"She knew what I was going to do," she said at last. "Before I had even thought about it, she knew. The tape, that wasn't some trick. She could tell what I was going to say before I had said it."

"Did she make you think of anything to do with SHIELD? Names, locations, codes?" What Clint was asking was had Hornet done something Loki had, was he about to lose another Agent to someone else's mind.

"No, just a headache, someone pressing on my temples. It was her talking, knowing. She didn't find anything, as far as I know." That was what scared Phil, as far as Juliette knew. There was no knowing exactly how far Hornet could delve into her mind.

"Alright. I'll do my best to keep special ops away from you." They would question Juliette far more thoroughly, harshly even.

"Doesn't matter," she answered, rolling back to stare up at the ceiling. Tasha had made it a term when she came in, no one messed with her head, Fury had kept Clint away from the interrogators whilst Phil had been out of it. None of them however had come up with a good enough excuse to make them leave Juliette alone when she joined SHIELD. "I'm not scared of the worse Uncle Sam can do."

"I didn't have the British down as ones for mind wiping," Phil said gently. Juliette let out a harsh little laugh.

"They're still scared as hell of the druids and the French." He wasn't going to get anything else out of her, not now she had started joking. There were things Phil knew he'd never know, Clint was the only person who had come completely clean. Tasha kept her past as a closely guarded secret only the ones she trusted knew. Juliette never said anything, talking all the while.

"Get some rest, we've still got a wasp to catch," he told her and stood up. Clint was at the door, a tray in hand. He glared at Phil as they met.

"You did it again," the archer hissed, checking they were out of Juliette's earshot. "You sent her in alone."

"I didn't have a choice, Barton," Phil snapped back.

"No, and you didn't have a choice in Cairo either." That again. Phil gave Clint an unimpressed stare. "You could have sent Nat, or-"

"No, Barton, I couldn't have. Things don't always work as we plan them." Clint was unconvinced. Phil turned to walk past him; he couldn't face that look again. He had enough guilt on his wounded shoulders already without Clint reminding him. Clint didn't say another word, disappearing into the sickroom.

"You look bored, I brought crumble," Phil heard him say, his tone instantly bright and cheerful.

"I think this tube is feeding me."

"Why haven't you got the TV on? You know Steve's watching Wimbledon, right?" Phil paused, listening. The TV came on after a moment he heard the dapper tones of a BBC sports commentator. There was a long silence. "It's strawberries for Wimbledon, isn't it?" Clint said finally.

"Yes."

... ...

**Note: I am disappearing to Scotland for a week and a half, so no updates, sorry. I shall continue when I return.**


	16. 16 Clint

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Clint** looked at the tennis match, without really seeing it. Every now and then he worked out which player in white shorts they were supporting then the swapped ends and he lost the plot of it. Juliette had fallen asleep, as far as he could tell from his new position. Natasha had come in silently, moving him from the chair by the bed to the one at the foot of it, all without asking him to move.

They all turned, Juliette apparently had been asleep and Phil wasn't quite enough in coming in to keep her that way. Another reminder that healing took time.

"The council's reached a decision," he announced, sitting in the chair Natasha had automatically vacated in favour of perching on the bed. "They've called Captain Rogers to the Helicarrier. They're giving him Champion Status." They looked at each other in silence for a long moment.

"That's good, right?" Clint asked. "Bruce is safe, and Steve's happy that he gets to keep the team." It would also possibly put to rest any threat of someone cutting his brain out after Loki, which had always been a possibility. "What's the catch?" It was the council, there was always a catch.

"Captain Rogers will be responsible for anything any member of his team does. Any deaths, damage, anything. He'll pay for anything Stark, or Banner, possibly even you two do." Clint felt some of the blood drain from his face and the girls looked equally shocked. Steve could now be held accountable for Bruce losing control, for Tony's stupid stunts and, Clint paled further, him losing his mind again. The council could shut the Avengers down in a heartbeat by simply choosing one of the various crimes they had committed and locking Steve up. That was the price of their independence.

"So that's Ross' argument settled once and for all?" asked Natasha. "Good. Do they know?"

"The Captain doesn't know yet, Fury's explaining it to him there. We'll let him break it to the team. Banner should be pleased."

"And Fury?" Natasha, Clint noticed was somehow managing to simultaneously look at Phil next to her whilst not turning her back on Juliette the other side.

"I think he's fine with it, there's little chance Hornet will be invited and he trusts the Captain. In a way, his only problem was Hornet and now she's hopefully been excluded from any team he might think to build." Phil gave Juliette a little nudge, getting a nod in return to check that she was alright.

"Stark isn't convinced," Natasha said quietly.

"Doesn't matter, Banner is safe to stay and we have to focus on keeping the rest of you out of trouble. Stark, Banner, even Thor if he turns up. And I don't know how far the blame stretches to you two. Missions, maybe, if they go wrong." Clint paled slightly at Phil's words. "But that is slightly ridiculous; at least I'd hope so."

They sat in silence for a while, half watching the tennis although Juliette, who was the only one paying attention kept drifting off to sleep. Clint got up, he knew he had some training to do and Phil would still be talking if there was anything worth telling them. Only Phil turned around as he left, without a word.

Clint passed the living room on his way to his room to grab his bow, his sense automatically picked up the presence of people in there.

"You're sure about it?" Bruce was asking. "He didn't stop at legalities before."

"It puts you permanently out of his reach, which gives us more room to move." Clint paused at Hill's voice and wondered if Tony would be the only person Steve had to break the news to. Hill's presence didn't make sense though, she was stationed in New York for the time being, until they caught Hornet he assumed, but she didn't have an excuse for being at the tower, he thought. "Rogers will explain it again, I'm sure. I should return to base, lunch hour's over." Clint carried on round the corner as he heard them move.

"I'll walk you down," he heard Bruce offer and headed towards his room before they came out into the corridor. Hill didn't even sit with other agents in the canteen, he'd never seen her there, except for the odd time when she formed part of the little ex-army group that occasionally got together. It was the same with Fury, and some of the other top directors. They couldn't come onto the same level as those beneath them. Now she was apparently spending lunch at the tower, which was an undisclosed distance from the New York base. Clint got his bow and once he reached the tiny range built to test Stark's suit, he hit the tiny dots perfectly one after the other.

"Barton," Phil's voice came through, less than an hour later. "Hornet's surfaced. We're all going to Miami." Miami, Clint frowned. Florida, that was so close to where Greyhound had been.

"Yes, sir." By all, he assumed Phil meant the four of them but as he neared the lift he saw Bruce and Tony there as well, Steve appeared only to do a U-turn after grabbing his shield. Clint looked from Phil's schooled blank expression to the various half hidden frowns from Tony and Steve. Bruce looked more nervous than anything.

"Our aim isn't to kill her," Steve told them all firmly. "Just to stop her." He must have caught the slightly blank gazes he was getting from Clint and Bruce. "Hornet is controlling people and somehow creating a general fight at Miami airport. The police are trying to contain it, but she's getting to them as well. So far, no causalities."

"Publicity stunt?" Natasha asked Tony.

"She kicked England's ass, you hate her, we get it," he snapped back.

"Enough." Phil and Steve had managed to say the same thing to shut them up, and Clint almost laughed at their identical expressions. Steve looked at the shorter agent in surprise and Phil's ears had gone one shade redder. Clint heard two distinct chuckles from either side of him as the lift went down.

… …

**And I return. Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far **


	17. 17 Natasha

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Natasha** looked at the scene before them, her jaw set grimly. Someone had started a fire and the noise of engines racing there almost drowned out the general panic that ensued. Not quite though.

Steve's announcement of zero casualties hadn't remained true for very long. Hill had kept them up to date on the plane, the army had moved in along with SHIELD, but it was impossible when civilians were the ones causing trouble under mind control. The problem wasn't that they were all being controlled at once, they were given clear evidence that wasn't the case. Natasha scowled at the general panic that had claimed the lives, rather than anything Hornet herself had actually done.

The Avengers, suited up except for Bruce, stepped out into the Miami sun. Natasha barely blinked at Stark rose above them loudly and they began to approach the centre of the riot. Some people parted and were being taken aside by cops and soldiers, others were too crazed.

"There's something you should all know," Phil said in their ears. "Greyhound was being held in the airport. He's now missing." There was a heavy silence as the team processed that. Natasha looked at Bruce, seeing what looked like a brief flash of anger.

"We don't have time for that," Steve told them firmly. "Tony, try and keep anyone who isn't in their own mind within this square, Clint, we need you up on a roof looking for Hornet. We find her, we can stop this. Bruce-"

"Stay calm?" Bruce gave Steve a pained smile. "I'll stay at the perimeter with the security personnel." Steve nodded. With so many civilians around, Hulk couldn't help them.

Natasha followed Steve into the middle of the fray, flooring a few of the larger weirdoes who came at her. They avoided harming civilians as much as possible, and the riot wasn't aimed at anything. Just a general mess.

That was, until the gun shots rang out. Natasha was buffeted to one side, almost losing her footing as the crowd began to scream and run in every direction.

"Romanoff!" She heard Steve yell from a few feet away but she couldn't see him. It was impossible to know who was firing from the ground and Natasha tried to get a hand to her ear to call for Clint only to be pushed back.

"Hawkeye?" she yelled as soon as she managed to press her comm.

"There's a group of armed gunmen in the centre. They're protecting something. Tony's going in to try and take them out. Where are you, Tasha?" She was too short, she realised to be seen in the crowd, even her hair didn't stand out enough. "I've got a tag on the Cap." Natasha had to find him, darting through the gaps until she heard his voice again. Steve was buffeted right into her, the pair of them grabbing onto each other for a second to avoid being pulled apart.

"We have to get to the centre of the car park," Natasha told him. Together they pushed against the flow, one hand holding the other's arm. Shots rang out again and the screams of someone in pain muffled by Tony's return fire.

"We've got wounded, and they're protecting Hornet as she leaves. I've got a lock on her," Stark told them. "They're moving west, right towards you, Cap." The throng around them was getting more frantic to run from the oncoming group, Natasha hit back at the elbow that smashed her ribs. In the crush she couldn't move to fight, not that she could do anything to the civilians. One wrong foot and they would be crushed on the floor. Already they had tripped over someone who had fallen over, with no choice but to leave them and press on.

"Okay, she's telling them my next move, I can't hit them," Tony growled in frustration. "Got one. There's another six. You're two metres away, Cap." Natasha could see the gunmen now, the crowd had thinned as people got away from the shots. She pulled out her gun and fired, hitting one's shoulder even as they turned to meet them. Hornet knew their every move, directing her guards as a Queen would workers in the hive. Natasha didn't pause to overthink that connection. Of Hornet's seven guards, two were now down. Steve had taken a shot, Natasha realised suddenly but was ignoring it.

A arrow came out of nowhere to hit a third guard before he could react. Natasha saw Hornet look up, stunned before she dived out of sight again. There were bodies around them, civilians caught in the crossfire. Natasha hit the fourth guard, by now they should have broken. The three that remained moved in perfect sync, the way Natasha and Juliette could sometimes when they knew each other so well they could guess the next blow coming. Still, they were holding their own, Tony kept making noises like a tin can, bullets bouncing off of him.

Then a shriek echoed out and a fifth guard fell, his attacker standing behind him. Natasha almost aimed at Greyhound before Steve stepped in front of her and the three of them rounded on the last two guards and Hornet. Surrounded from the air and three sides, Hornet simply gave them a smile and reached out to touch the nearest guard. Natasha shot the other one as the ability to expect her moves was lost to him.

"Bring her in," Phil said in her ear. "The council wants her alive." Natasha was about to argue when she saw the bomb in mid-air. Steve flung himself away, toppling Greyhound as he did so. Natasha managed to scream Tony's name before hitting the floor and rolling. The explosion knocked her further, ripping through her head as the wave rocked past her.

The world fell very still and quiet as the shock faded, sound gradually coming back to Natasha's ears.

"Stark?" Steve called. "Romanoff?"

"Ouch," they heard Tony answer. "All good her."

"I'm fine," Natasha told them, picking herself up. The explosion had been tiny, enough to knock them down but that was it. The guard was dead, Hornet was gone.

"I've lost the mark," Clint said quietly through the comm.

"Get back here, all of you," came Phil's order. Natasha looked herself over, cuts and bruises and a headache to match the bang that half deafened her. She glanced at Steve, his thigh was bleeding and he was covered in dust. Greyhound suddenly had her gun pointing at him, and he raised his hands in defeat.

"Wait," said Steve. "You weren't on her side." Greyhound shook his head.

"Of the two offers, at least you're not psychos," he answered. Natasha didn't think too much of that but Steve sent her a look that told her to put the gun down.

"You'll come in with us?" the Captain asked him. Natasha saw something resembling a dog in the way Greyhound nodded too eagerly. "We have Greyhound."

"Yay," Stark muttered sarcastically.


	18. 18 Bruce

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Bruce** stood at the bar, looking at the vast array of oddly named drinks Tony had on offer.

"Is there anything without alcohol in?" he asked no one in particular.

"Tea?" Juliette offered from her spot on the sofa where Natasha had placed her firmly, having only been allowed out of the medical bay that morning. She held up her mug with a grin. "The kettle just boiled." Bruce laughed but shook his head. He could find some fruit juice.

It wasn't a party, Tony wasn't there and there wasn't the atmosphere or something to celebrate. The only thing Bruce could sense around the room was the sort of mixture of relief and disappointment when a game was won but the team stayed in the bottom league. He wondered briefly when he had started making sports analogies.

He found some juice, sitting opposite the girls. Clint was somewhere out of his line of sight by the window, his conversation with Phil was just below audible for Bruce. He waited; they were all waiting, passing the time before the door opened. Natasha and Juliette were alternating between reading each other a paragraph of Shakespeare. Bruce lost track of who exactly was playing whom, and they appeared to have as well. So he half listened to a much annotated reading of Hamlet, glancing at the door every so often.

"We do it wrong, being so majestical," Natasha read softly. "To offer it the show of violence; for it is, as the air, invulnerable, and our vain blow malicious mockery."

Tony was the first to walk in, a while later. Bruce looked up immediately and watched as Tony went straight for the bar.

No one actually asked the burning question in all their minds, like the elephant in the room. The Shakespeare carried on as they waited for whatever outburst Tony was about to give.

"Ay, that incestuous, that aduterate beast, with witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,-" Juliette was cut off mid-sentence.

"You'll be pleased, Agent," Tony said suddenly. They all knew he was talking to Phil. "Your little list has worked out." Bruce didn't know whether to smile or scowl. Adam, after turning up to help in the middle of Miami, was back at the tower with them. Bruce had stuck to his side, to fend the others off if necessary. Natasha and Clint hadn't said two words to Greyhound, neither had Tony. It was Steve who was in the conference room with him now, talking.

"He's not you," Maria had half whispered just as Bruce got off the jet in New York. "Just remember that." She had been called away before they could say anything else.

There was a moment of silence following Tony's announcement. Bruce saw Coulson give a little nod, but the other three said nothing.

"And-" Tony sighed, taking a gulp of drink before he continued. "I've joined the we hate Hornet club."

"Smashing, we've got little stickers and a motto and everything," Juliette answered. Bruce couldn't tell if that was sarcasm or not. "Occidunt vesparum."

The door opened again, Steve's tall frame entered followed by Adam. Bruce gave the only reassuring expression in the room to the small blond man.

"Do I really need to tell you?" Steve asked, looking at each of their faces. Bruce didn't know what to think, he had tried to get Adam away from the Avengers, to let him back out instead of being called upon, yet he had shown up in Miami, when he had so obviously managed to get free.

"They deserve an explanation," Tony muttered from the side of the room, half into his scotch glass.

"No, no it's fine," Adam said quickly as Steve cleared his throat. "Hornet came and attacked the agents who were holding me in the airport. She wanted me to help her, but I don't know if you've heard one of her speeches, she's crazy. I said no and ran for it, straight into the trouble she had made. I've got to do something, and none of you seem like psychopaths." Bruce smiled at the snort that came from Clint's direction.

Slowly, Juliette stood up. She was the only one there who had managed to get attacked by both Greyhound and Hornet.

"Adam is going to work with SHIELD, and if we need help with Hornet, or anything else he'll be around," Steve added.

"A semi-Avenger," said Clint. "Like Juliette."

"I can live with that." They all turned to Tony. "England being a semi-Avenger, that is. And, well Rover can stay too." The scotch glass was raised slightly before Tony ignored them and went back to looking out at the city.

"Smashing, we have little stickers and everything." Bruce couldn't help but wonder at what the stickers were about.

"That- that sounds great." Adam glanced around for what to do faced with the super spy he had maimed a few days before. "Uh, about your arm, I'm sorry. It wasn't personal."

"I say that to a lot of dead people too." Only the girls managed to keep a straight face at that, Bruce smirked at how badly Clint was trying not to laugh. Coulson just looked proud of her.

"Right. Sorry."

"Bruce," Tony came suddenly back into the conversation, this time holding two glasses of scotch. "He's like you, make him stop apologising." One he handed to Adam. "Note, unlike you he drinks. He has suddenly gotten more interesting." That was about as close to acceptance as Tony was likely to get.

Bruce pulled his vibrating phone out of his pocket.

_Greyhound chose to stay despite what you told him,_ Maria had typed.

_I'm fine_, he answered.

_Good, he had accepted the offer SHIELD made him before Hornet arrived._ Bruce was surprised at that, but apparently Adam had given them the short version of the story.

_No coercion,_ Maria added moments later.

_And Hornet?_ Bruce had sat down in a corner, only half listening to Tony's bad ice breakers. Somewhere in the background, Hamlet had started again.

_Nothing... There's Hemlock though._ Bruce looked at his phone, then up at the others. He had forgotten about the remaining two missing Avengers.

… …

**Greyhound has finished. The next one will be Hemlock. Thank you all for reading, I hoped you enjoyed it.**

**P.S. Juliette's motto means kill the wasp.**


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